Getting Things Done

by David Allen

David Allen provides some practical and easy to implement ideas on becoming more productive individually and as a work team. Fast Company has dubbed him the “personal productivity guru.”

By using Allen’s simple, but effective organization ideas, I’ve rediscovered that there is a wooden desk under all of my piles of papers and files. In just one week of implementing his ideas, I’m feeling more in control of my work life and my personal life. It takes a lot of discipline to use his tools, but his system gives me hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel!

One of the main take-aways I got from David’s book is that you can’t think clearly when your head is full of thousands of “to do’s” – these thoughts need to be organized and retrievable. Once you have done that, you can focus on the task at hand; not worrying about everything else that isn’t done yet.

The main points to keep in mind are:

Get everything out of your head.

Make decisions about actions required on stuff when it shows up, not when it blows up.

Organize reminders of your projects and the next actions on them in appropriate categories.

Keep your system current, complete, and reviewed sufficiently to trust your intuitive choices about what you’re doing and what you’re not doing at any point in time.